


Soliloquies

by Lilyliegh



Series: Yuuya Appreciation Week 2017 [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Acting, Emotional, Friendship, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 09:06:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11802900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilyliegh/pseuds/Lilyliegh
Summary: The new student in Yuuya and Yuzu's drama class, Sora, pretends to be all right but inside is hurting. Yuuya and Yuzu befriend him and offer their support.





	Soliloquies

**Author's Note:**

> for Yuuya Appreciation Week - day 01 - attention

“He’s cute, isn’t he?”

Yuuya blushes; Yuzu is right. There’s a boy sitting one seat ahead of them in drama class with bright blue hair done up in a high ponytail … only the boy isn’t necessarily sitting, but instead bouncing back and forth in the chair with excitement or anxiety. He’s new to the drama club, and perhaps even new to the school since Yuuya has never seen him before. From behind him, Yuuya can’t see his face; he considers tapping the boy on the shoulder and introducing himself, but before he has a chance a man with flaming orange hair takes centre-stage and claps his hands. Twenty pairs of eyes look up at him.

“Welcome to drama club! I see a bunch of familiar faces this year – hi sweetie” – Yuzu blushes scarlet – “and some new ones too! How is everyone today?”

With a murmur of ‘goods’ and ‘OKs’, the teacher then dips into introductions. “My name’s Hiiragi Shuuzou, and many of you must wonder if I’m Yuzu’s father? You’re correct.” He bows towards her, and she taps a paper fan on her legs in a silent warning. “Well, since we’re not all acquainted with each other, how about an ice-breaker? You have thirty seconds to make up a soliloquy, and then thirty seconds more to share it when we go around the room.” A clap of hands. “Begin.”

Twenty heads drop to their knees as each student begins thinking of how to introduce themselves. This is a typical ice-breaker for Shuuzou, especially for the first day when many students don’t know anyone else. For Yuuya, he’s a second-year student and knows most of the drama department. Likewise, Yuzu knows even the drama faculty and staff, her father being friends with everyone in the school. 

Across from them, the new student is fiddling with his hands, legs kicking. He’s the smallest by far; even standing he would only come up to Yuuya’s chin. Because Yuuya has never seen him before, Yuuya assumes he’s a first-year student who has just joined the school. This kid might not even have friends in homeroom yet …

Before Yuuya has time to think, Shuuzou claps his hands once more, the sound ringing through the auditorium, and the activity begins. One by one students monologue their identities and interests, making sure to point out their names and pronouns, and any highlights from their drama careers. For Yuzu’s soliloquy, she sings: her voice has a steady tone, only rising up at the ends of words.

When she’s done, she turns to Yuuya. “Your turn.”

Yuuya stands up and heads to the front of the stage. Now standing before his classmates, he can see the face of the new student. He’s even younger than Yuuya expected, a child with wide, green eyes and dimpled cheeks. The end of a lollipop sticks out from between his small, pink lips which curl in a grin. 

Yuuya coughs into his hand once and then clears his throat. “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to drama club! I’m your entertainer for tonight, Sakaki Yuuya!” He jumps once, twice, and then throws his body backwards, flipping through the air; he land with his hands up and waving to the audience that cheers for him. “What do you want to know about me now, hm? Let’s see here! I’m a duelist, a performer, the star of my life! And – most importantly –” 

With a cheer, Yuuya breaks off in a run. His legs hit the wooden ground until he’s at the edge of the stage, right at the front where the students are sitting in rapt interest. Instead of stopping though, Yuuya keeps running until his legs no longer touch the stage, and he sails over the heads of his classmates to land several rows of chairs back. He balances atop the chairs, arms held out wide. All heads have now turned back, mouths hung open.

“And, most importantly, I want to see you smile!”

His classmates smile for him, cheering excitedly. Yuuya hops down from his perch on the chairs and takes his seat next to Yuzu, who praises him for always surprising the audience. Ahead of them, the new student’s eyes are still on him, lollipop hanging from the corner of his mouth. Yuuya winks at him; the kid’s eyes sparkle.

It turns out that the new student is just a few performances afterwards. He hops up from his seat, but instead of walking up to the stage, he copies Yuuya, jumping on the backs of the chairs and walking up to the wooden stage. He takes a short bow when the audience claps for him, and then rises with a beaming smile.

“Hiya everyone, Shiunin Sora here! I’m an entertainer too, and what I want more than anything is to make you happy!” Just like Yuuya, he flips, only instead of landing on his feet, he lands in a handstand, legs waving back and forth. “I hope you’ll all be my friends in class!” A jump up, small body sailing through the air. He lands on his feet this time, only he doesn’t stop moving; no, Sora never stops jumping around, swaying back and forth in what Yuuya can only describe as an idol pose.

“Be sweet, right?”

Shiunin Sora is an idol.

The crowd claps for him. Yuuya feels his cheeks grow hot as Sora blows kisses to everyone, though his eyes remain fixed on Yuuya and Yuzu. Next to him, Yuzu leans in close and whispers, “He’s cute, isn’t he?”

He is, and it makes Yuuya stumble over his next words: “Yep, he is.”

Sora hops off the stage with a small cheer, only he doesn’t take his seat towards the front. Instead, he walks along the backs of the chairs again right up to the last row where Yuuya and Yuzu sit, and he plops himself down right next to Yuuya. Now inches from him, Sora presses close to Yuuya, green eyes half the size of his round, cherubic face. “Shiunin Sora, nice to meet you!”

Yuuya juts out his hand, trying discreetly to bring his head a bit further away from Sora. “Sakaki Yuuya, nice to meet you too.”

And then Sora leans straight over Yuuya to shake Yuzu’s hand, small body lying flat over Yuuya’s legs. Yuuya hopes his blush isn’t visible in the dimmed lights as Sora begins eagerly shaking Yuzu’s hand, introducing himself and telling her about his old school.

“I’m not from around here,” he says, “and I’m not even supposed to be at this school, but I’m here now and that’s what matters, right? I really wanted to be at the same school as you two!”

“As – wait, the same school as us?” Yuzu is now leaning over Yuuya’s legs to stare at Sora, who digs into his pockets for another lollipop to put in his mouth. When Yuzu is curious about something, she does not back down … even if that involves laying over top of Yuuya just to interrogate Sora. “How do you know we go to this school, and how do you even know about us?”

Sora kicks his legs back on the chair in front of him; now that the soliloquys are done, Shuuzou has begun handing out club permission forms and the other paperwork needed to become an official drama club member. Sora takes one and sticks it under his seat, and then tells Yuzu, “You’re entertainers, aren’t you? The best of the best?”

Yuzu chuckles under her breath. “We’re small-time drama club members – that really doesn’t give us a lot of publicity.”

“I mean –” Sora gestures wildly with his hands, throwing both palms up to the vaulted ceilings. “Not like drama entertainers, but like … you’re dueling entertainers! You’ve done matches before, and I want to duel with you, and I want to perform with you, and I really, really,  _ really  _ want to be your friends!” All of this is said in one breath, and by the time Sora is done his cheeks are red and he’s panting. “I just … want to be … your friends.”

It’s impressive that he’s managed to get so many words out; Yuuya will give him credit for it. Both Yuuya and Yuzu, on top of being drama students, are Entertainment duelists at Shuuzou’s You Show Duel School, which has weekend courses for aspiring duelists. If Sora’s seen their dueling career, that means he’s interested in Duel Monsters too. Yuzu is the only friend Yuuya has who is both a drama student and a duelist.

Now Yuuya can lean a bit closer and peek over Yuzu’s head, between her pink ponytails, to meet Sora’s eyes. “You joined this school … to be our friends?”

Sora’s head bobs up and down as if his head is dislocated from his neck. “I did, I did!”

A pause; a breath that Yuuya lets out from his lungs and leaves his face falling into a warm smile. “That’s awesome, Shiunin –”

“Sora,” he interrupts. “Call me Sora, Coach Yuuya!”

“Coach?”

Sora nods. “Teach me how to become a better student and duelist, Coach! And you too, Teacher Yuzu!”

It’s a moment longer before any of them speak, all three of them squeezed into such a small space in the row of chairs. In the dim drama room, their eyes glow brightly like small stars, or even windows to their jubilant souls. Yuuya feels his heart leap in his throat when he peers down at Yuzu, his childhood friend – and, now when he looks forward at Sora, his heart climbs even higher. They’re both smiling at him, and he’s smiling with them, and he feels at peace.

Yuzu breaks the silence to say, “Welcome to the club, Sora!”

They laugh together, and class resumes. Over the following weeks, Sora becomes a more prominent member of both the class and duel school. No matter where they go or look, Sora is by their side, chatting about whatever has flitted into his mind. In a way, Sora’s life is like an eternal soliloquy where he never stops talking about himself or his friends. Yuuya learns more about Sora in five minutes than he knows about himself in all of his life – nothing is ever a secret for him.

This particular detail becomes important on the night of their very first show, when Sora is sitting straight as a stick with glassy eyes. If one wasn’t looking at him in the right, saturated light, he might’ve appeared to be OK; however, Yuuya can look past all of Sora’s masks and see that he is terrified. Deep down in Sora’s heart, he’s scared. His hands clench the tops of his legs so tightly that it creates red puncture marks from his nails breaking his tender skin. Despite the brightness of his eyes, there are deep bags under them from sleepless nights spent worrying over this performance.

Somehow, Sora manages to lift his head when Yuuya sits down; Yuzu sits opposite of him, and she carefully pulls his hands away from his legs so he doesn’t hurt himself further. While Yuzu strokes out the tension from his fingers, Yuuya reaches up to touch the bottoms of Sora’s eyes. It gets him to look up; a bit of artificial lighting seeps into his eyes, turning their depth an iridescent blue that captivates Yuuya.

“You’re scared, aren’t you?” Yuuya says.

Sora shakes his head, lips pressed tight. He then tries to smile, and it’s so fake that it makes Yuuya’s heart pang. Sora won’t show weakness: weeks of watching him practice has proved to Yuuya that Sora will never take into account his own feelings, and never will he show what’s truly going on inside his mind. Even now, pale-faced and near-breakdown, Sora tries to smile for them, wriggling his hands out of Yuzu’s.

“Tonight’s the big night, hm?”

Yuzu nods. No longer holding his hands, her fingers snake up to nestle in his hair. It’s thin, but there are so many strands that are pulled back in two pigtails. The makeup department has done a wonderful job beautifying him for the night; the stage makeup makes his green eyes pop out, erasing the tired lines of his face. It’s another mask that Sora wears, one that only his closest friends can see through. 

Over the past few weeks, Yuuya has learned about Sora’s weaknesses. Sora is a wonderful actor and entertainer, but he’s self-destructive: he’ll do anything to make the audience smile, even if it hurts him in the process. Even now, Sora tries to make Yuuya and Yuzu smile by puffing out his cheeks or kicking his legs back and forth, anything to take his friends’ minds away from the sorrow that threatens to tear him in two. Underneath Sora’s mask, Yuuya can see the cracks in his smile.

“It’s OK to be afraid, you know? That’s a strength all on its own.” Yuuya kicks his own feet back and forth, his body a pendulum arcing through a starlit stage. “You don’t have to hide it, Sora. You can be scared, and Yuzu and I will still be with you.”

“I’m not scared.”

Yuzu hms under her breath. “We’ll be with you on the stage. We’ll never let go.”

Yuuya wishes he had a chance to say more, but soon Sora will be on the stage, and Yuuya and Yuzu need to get to their places too. With one last hug, Yuuya channels all his love and hope into Sora. He hopes it’s enough strength to get Sora out to the cheering audience; once there, he’ll no doubt have his mask in place.

The three of them head to their places, hand-in-hand until they have to let go. Through a slit in the curtains Yuuya can see the bright lights eager to shine their warmth on the players all lined up on the stage. The audience looks energetic, already on the edges of their seats from the climactic beginning. Like the pendulum, they’ll swing with the actors through a myraids of emotions. Like a pendulum, they’re keep hoping and dreaming. 

Through a slit in the curtains, Yuuya can see Sora opposite of him, a knight in shining armour. In fact, the armour – the mask – is near-impenetrable at this point; Yuuya only sees Sora’s smile, a bit too big and bright and out-of-place. He’s trying though; Yuuya will give him that much. That’s all Yuuya can ask for, isn’t it: take a step forward with courage.

Sora takes the stage with both hands in the air, light spilling over his gleaming face. “Ladies and Gentlemen!”

He’s trying. 

He’ll keep smiling. 


End file.
